Features

Did King Solomon Violate the Second Commandment?

Reader’s Letter Sparks Article When reading Victor Hurowitz’s “Inside Solomon’s Temple,” BR 10:02, a question suddenly occurred to me that I should have thought of years ago.

King Saul—A Bungler from the Beginning

When creating the first woman, God says, “I will make [the man] a helper fit for him” (Genesis 2:18).1

Profiles in Scholarly Courage
Early days of New Testament criticism By Marcus J. Borg

More than two centuries ago, it occurred to a few European intellectuals that Jesus as a figure of history may have been quite different from Jesus as portrayed in the Gospels. With the awareness of that potential difference, the scholarly quest for the Jesus of history began.

What Was Paul Doing in “Arabia”?

About Paul’s missionary journeys to the west much has been written. But almost nothing has been said of his trip to Arabia. No wonder; it is barely mentioned, almost as an aside, in Galatians 1:17: “I went away into Arabia, and again I returned to Damascus.”

The Shepherd of Hermas
An early tale that almost made it into the New Testament By Carolyn Osiek

The Shepherd of Hermas was one of the most popular Christian texts in the first centuries of the church. True, it did not make the final cut; that is, it was not included in the New Testament.a But it was considered canonical by the influential second-century church father Irenaeus. Tertullian, another prominent church father of […]

Departments

Moving Beyond Masculine Metaphors
The holy God is beyond all our categories, including gender distinctions of masculine or feminine. By Bernhard W. Anderson
A Political Christmas Story
Luke presents Jesus’ birth as a political message. But it is not the birth of an emperor that ushers in an era of peace: Rather it is the birth of a child in Bethlehem. By Helmut Koester